Originally Posted by Bostonian
Originally Posted by raptor_dad
Either your tests are unbiased and meaningful and any prep is worthless... or whatever you are testing is arbitrary and I would be naive not to prep. You can't have it both ways.
I disagree. My eldest son at age 8 got a 700 on the math SAT in part because he was "prepped" -- he had worked through Singapore Math and EPGY through Beginning Algebra and taken the math section of two practice SATs. But for almost all 8yo's, including my younger two, SAT math "prep" would be an exercise in utter frustration. My current 8yo dabbles with algebra but keeps thinking that 5x^2 really means 25x^2 -- and that's OK.

In short, the ability to benefit from test prep is itself g-loaded.
Agree. I think acceleration in of itself can be considered 'prep' for achievement tests like Explore, since ultimately accelerated kids are the ones likely to ace Explore at an age that matters. And yes the ability to benefit from such 'prep' is g-loaded.

Prepping for an IQ test though, I think, is really crazy since the results will be meaningless. I don't think Justin Chapman's mom had any good excuse for what she did which was simply cheating and teaching her child to cheat.